


Cry Havoc

by Annariel



Series: Season 2b [4]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Timeline, Fanon, Houses of Parliament (UK), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-13
Updated: 2010-08-13
Packaged: 2017-10-11 01:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/107048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An anomaly cluster opens in the House of Commons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cry Havoc

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Fredbassett for beta-reading.

Helen was bored. Politics always sent her to sleep but sadly she needed to be keeping track of this. She stared idly at the hotel ceiling while Lester droned on. She was tempted to switch off the computer but Lester had warned her she might be called to give evidence and she wanted to know what had been said. Lucia had also warned her she might be called and had hoped Helen understood the importance of the committee. As a result, UK Parliament live on the web it was.

"So in summary," Lester finally concluded, "I see no reason to suppose the anomalies are anything other than an entirely natural phenomenon. The proposed extensions to the Prevention of Terrorism Act can not be justified with reference to the anomaly problem."

Helen rolled her eyes and sighed. Who cared about the Prevention of Terrorism powers? The government was going to extend them anyway - the realities of the anomaly situation didn't make any difference to that.

Suddenly there was an excited babble of voices followed by a scream. Helen looked back at the screen and then sat upright in alarm. The bright shining shape of an anomaly was hanging in the centre of the committee room. As Helen watched, a troodon leaped through. The picture suddenly cut out.

Helen reached for the phone.

# Cry Havoc

_Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war._

William Shakespeare - Julius Caesar

Helen was standing outside the police cordon when the team pulled up in a four-by-four. A lot of army officers seemed to be present and there was an interesting little jurisdictional dispute going on between a Brigadier and a Chief Inspector. Helen was staying on the sidelines. She intended to bypass them anyway, but wanted her whole team behind her when she did.

She walked over as they started unloading the four-by-four. Two more trucks pulled up. Captain Lyle and his men piled out. Helen really shouldn't have been surprised. He was here to rescue Lester.

"There's more than one anomaly," Connor told her as she approached.

"How many?" she asked.

"I don't know, at least four, we stopped being able to differentiate them at that point. I think there are lots more though, opening and shutting rapidly."

Helen had a very bad feeling about this. She should know about an anomaly confluence that large.

"We working together on this?" Lyle was standing behind her, fully armed.

Helen nodded. "We'll have to get past the Brigadier and the police. Just look like you own the place."

She felt the teams forming up behind her and set off for the police line. At that moment she caught sight of an immaculately tailored suit heading her way. She paused to let Lucia catch her up.

"Stand your team down, Helen," said Lucia.

"What!" It was Lyle's voice.

Lucia's eyes never left Helen's face. "I said stand your team down. This is a matter for the military. It's too big for a small team to handle."

Helen looked across to where the Brigadier and Chief Constable had been arguing. The Chief Constable had a distinctly defeated air about him. There didn't seem to be a lot of soldiers around.

"What's he planning on doing?" asked Lyle, nodding towards the Brigadier.

"I understand that a regiment is on their way."

Lyle made an exasperated noise. "We need to go in now!"

"Two SWAT teams have already gone in and failed to come out again. We wait."

Helen eyed Lucia calmly. "Where's the Defence Secretary?"

"In there," Lucia nodded towards the Houses of Parliament.

"The Prime Minister?"

"Likewise."

"So you're the senior government minister present. You can overrule the military and send in a team."

Lucia smirked ever so slightly. "I'm afraid I agree with the military assessment. It's too dangerous for a small team. We have to wait."

"You just want Lester dead!" said Lyle angrily.

"Lyle," warned Helen.

"Honestly, Captain," snapped Lucia. "Lester is hardly my priority. Half the government is in that building."

She glanced at Helen. Cold shivers went down Helen's spine. A trap was about to be sprung.

"I can't over-rule the military assessment," said Lucia. "Everything we can reasonably do in a rapid response fashion has been tried. However, I have a number of colleagues in there and I'm aware that the people in front of me are those best equipped to deal with the situation. I will not prevent one further team entering the building, but I will not have anyone ordered inside. I hope I make myself clear. You can go in, but it is to be volunteers only."

"I'll go," said Lyle.

"Me too!" It was Stephen.

Helen cursed.

"And me!" from Connor.

"No!" said Helen sharply. "Connor, Abby, you're both staying here. This isn't a scientific situation."

"She said anyone could volunteer," protested Abby.

Helen took a gamble and looked at Lyle.

"She's right," said Lyle. "Sorry, you two, but I need people who are used to shooting."

"Then why take Stephen?" argued Abby.

"He's got more experience than either of you."

"To be honest, I'd prefer it if Stephen didn't go," interrupted Helen. "But I won't actually stop him."

"Well," Lucia smiled tightly, "sort it out between yourselves. But if I hear that any pressure was put on any one to go in there, there will be trouble."

* * *

It looked like there was no question that all of Lyle's team were going in. Helen watched them crowd round a schematic of the interior that Lyle had spread out in the back of the truck. Next to Lyle stood Lieutenant Niall Richards, known as Blade. He had a closely shaven head and a disconcertingly direct gaze. It hadn't taken Helen long to figure out his nick name. She'd even watched one of the knife fights that definitely never took place out at the back of the ARC, from a discrete distance of course. He liked his knives and he was good.

Then there was Corporal Darren Cooper or Kermit. Helen was told he had a wife and kids, a fact she studiously didn't think about too much. She'd once kidnapped him into the past and one thing had led to another. He was a nice kid, though, understandably wary of her, of course.

Next to him was Private Robert Finn, one of the youngest of the Special Forces, keen on guns, nice but dim. Helen had never had much time for him.

Second Lieutenant Dave Owen, aka Ditzy, was the medic, known for his sarcasm and his cold hands. Helen had vaguely heard something about a girlfriend and got the impression she was the centre of the wives' circle. Beyond that, she had heard he was good at his job and was grateful she'd never had cause to verify that fact.

Lastly, there was Private Tanya Lacey, the only woman on the special forces team. Helen had worked with her before and respected her sharp senses. Today her nut brown curls were scraped back into a pony tail. Her face was set into an expressionless mask but Helen knew it was often like that. Private Lacey didn't open up easily, but Helen thought she was being even more careful than usual not to show her feelings. Lester or Lyle or the departed Captain Ryan or just a shared interest in caving, had forged a very closely knit group of soldiers. Possibly it was a bit of all three elements shaping the team, but there was no doubt that every one of them was willing to die in order to get Lester out of there alive. It was just that some were more careful about hiding it than others.

A second ARC team, on the other hand, had opted out. They were comparative newcomers sharing no memory of Captain Ryan and no interest in caving. They were bunched up in discussion with the Brigadier. When the reinforcements arrived, they'd be working with them. Connor was with Lyle's group pointing out the locations of the confirmed anomalies.

"Lyle, a word please," Helen murmured.

"I'm busy."

"This is important and it won't take long."

Lyle stepped back slightly from the group. "Go on!"

"You realise that by insisting this op is volunteers only, Lucia is ensuring that only those most loyal to Lester go in there."

Helen watched Lyle process that information. "Not a lot I can do about that."

"Lyle! Lester is probably dead anyway. But if you take your team in there and get them all killed and by some miracle he survives, you've effectively cut him off from all military support within the Anomaly Research Centre."

"He's lost the political battle anyway, which is the important one," observed Lyle. "I'm just concerned with getting him, and any other survivors, out of there as quickly as possible."

Helen sighed. This was going to end badly. Lyle knew it too. She could see he was rubbing his thumbs.

"You can't even use the armour piercing bullets," she said, "because there may be survivors. You're walking into an anomaly confluence armed only with water pistols."

Lyle flashed her a rogueish grin. "We've survived worse."

"I doubt it," muttered Helen.

"There's another one!" came a shout.

Helen spun round. A large anomaly was opening in Old Palace Yard.

"Squad! Positions!" shouted Lyle, running forwards. He'd only crossed a couple of yards, the rest of the squad fanned out in a loose V shape behind him when a Tyranosaurus rex leaped through the anomaly. Lyle dropped to his knees sighting along his gun.

Helen turned and raced back towards the four-by-four. Connor and Abby were ahead of her, already unloading the rocket launcher. The sound of gunfire echoed behind them.

"Used one of these before?" she asked, as Connor fumbled to set it up.

"I've read the manual," he said.

"Mine I think." Finn had run back to them. A pleased grin crossed his youthful features as he shouldered the gun. "You loaded this?"

"I think so," stammered Connor.

"Stand back."

Finn knelt down and fired the launcher. A grenade sped out and impacted with the T. rex, knocking it messily to the ground.

"One down!" shouted Lyle, triumphantly.

Helen didn't feel like celebrating. The anomaly pulsed once and then closed as quickly as it had opened.

* * *

The team entered through St. Stephen's entrance. Lyle took point with Finn and Lacey either side of him. Blade, Kermit and Stephen followed behind, with Ditzy in the rear.

They each wore a radio headset with a small camera mounted on one side. This meant everything they saw was relayed back to the Brigadier, the Chief Constable, the remaining ARC members and fuck knew what other spectators.

Lyle's plan, such as it was, was to check the Lobby, the Commons and the Lords for survivors and then proceed upstairs to the committee rooms. He'd seen a plan of the building. There was no way they could sweep the whole thing, but Connor's best bet was that an anomaly had opened in each of the debating chambers and a third remained open in the central lobby. There was one, also still open, in Victoria Tower (which Lyle intended to ignore) and another had opened and shut on the upper floor. Connor had warned, though, that it was possible that dozens of other anomalies had opened and closed.

St. Stephen's Hall was grandiose, with statuary down the sides and a tall gothic ceiling that rose upwards like the interior of a cathedral. Lyle could imagine tourists rubber-necking open-mouthed at the place. He was more concerned with the three large lizard-like creatures, each nearly two metres long, crawling across the floor.

"What are they?" asked Lacey nervously.

"Diadectes," came Connor's voice over the headsets. "Large herbivores," he added, followed a moment later by, "probably."

Lyle eyed the creatures doubtfully. They were ambling around, not looking obviously dangerous.

"You might be able to herd them," came Abby's voice. "I can look after them if you get them outside, some of the cages have arrived."

Lyle debated inwardly. "Will do." He decided. "This way we clear a route through for survivors to get out. But if they get twitchy or dangerous, I'm having them shot."

Carefully the team edged round the lizards until they were on the far side of them. Lyle glanced at the soldiers and nodded to Stephen. "Let's make some noise."

They started shouting, fanned out across the width of the hallway. The beasts picked up pace and, thankfully, headed away from them, tails swishing. Lyle winced as one of the statues was knocked crashing to the floor.

"So much for Pitt the Younger," came Helen's acerbic voice over the comms.

Lyle watched as the three creatures rushed outside. He could see the other ARC team standing just beyond the entrance. Hopefully that was one problem sorted out.

"OK," Lyle took a deep breath. "From here on it'll probably get harder."

He pushed open the door to the Central Lobby.

There was a flash of snapping teeth and fast movement. Instinctively, Lyle ducked as something bounded over his head. There was a sound of gunfire and a cry. Lyle whirled around to follow the movement. Where Blade had been standing Lyle could see a velociraptor. Without thinking he let off a burst of gunfire and watched it crumple.

"Blade!" Kermit shouted.

Together they pulled the velociraptor's body to one side. Blade was underneath. Lyle could see there was a knife still gripped in one hand. Blade was preternaturally fast, but even so Lyle was amazed he'd managed to switch to the hand weapon for close-quarter work in time.

Hurriedly, Ditzy started on the standard checks. "He's bleeding badly," he reported, "but he should live."

"We need a medical team in here," Lyle shouted. "Man down."

"Negative!" came the Brigadier's clipped voice.

"We've cleared the damn hallway, Sir, and we'll keep the door to the lobby shut. We need a stretcher team at the least."

He looked around. "Stay with him, Ditzy, and help with the evac. We don't have time to wait."

The medic nodded.

Carefully, Lyle opened the lobby door once more and the team slipped through, closing it behind them.

The lobby was no less grandiose than the hallway behind them. Arched windows in four of the octagonal sides filled the place with sunlight that glanced off the tiled floor. Lyle felt the cold eyes of Margaret Thatcher upon him.

"Well, I'll be," muttered Kermit, gazing up at a glittering anomaly that hung in the centre of the octagonal ceiling. Swooping in and out of it and circling above their heads was a pterodactyl.

"Stephen," muttered Lyle. The man was a good sharp shooter.

"Cutter wouldn't want it killed," muttered Stephen.

"If you're going to be a liability you can get out of here now," said Lyle. "There are at least two active anomalies in this building and several dozen MPs. We need to clear the creatures out fast and not faff around."

There was a shot and the pterodactyl fell to the ground in the centre of the chamber.

"I didn't say I would have agreed with him," Stephen said.

"Which way now?" asked Lacey. "Lords or Commons?"

"Commons," decided Lyle. "The PM is still missing and he was supposed to be at a debate."

It was disconcerting to be standing inside a room seen so often on the television. It was empty of humans, standing ones at least. It did contain three large, lightly built, bear like creatures.

"What the fuck are they?" muttered Lacey.

"Hemicyon," came Connor's voice over the radio. "Half bear, half dog."

Lyle sighted down his gun at one and squeezed the trigger. The creature leaped. Lyle cursed as the shot went wide. There was a shout from beside him. He glanced across to where Kermit should have been standing but saw only a blur of fur and gunfire. He couldn't shoot for fear of hitting his man. The two other beasts were already down, caught in the crossfire from Stephen and Lacey.

Finn ran past him into the body of the chamber. "Oi!" he shouted, kneeling and sighting back in the melee. He let off a quick shot, high above the fight.

"Behind you!" Lyle shouted. A fourth Hemicyon appeared from behind one of the benches and powered down the chamber. Lyle let off a burst in its direction. Finn had half-turned when the creature piled into him. Lyle swore. He strode up to the pair and put a shot into the creature's head. There was blood everywhere, but Lyle didn't have to look hard to see that most of it had come from the jagged hole torn in Finn's throat.

"Damn!" It was Lacey's voice.

He looked up. Lacey was kicking the last Hemicyon aside. Underneath it was the remains of Kermit.

"Shit!" swore Lyle. He hurried over. Kermit was still alive, but again there was blood everywhere, spurting in great gushes from his legs. Lacey threw aside her gun and pressed her hands to the wounds, trying to staunch the flow.

"Cara!" groaned Kermit.

"You're going to be fine, lad," said Lyle desperately. He looked at Lacey's stricken face as she fought with the wound.

"Ditzy! We need you here now!" Lyle shouted into the radio. "Two down."

Fuck! What a mess. Lyle swept the rest of the chamber quickly, pausing only to grimace at the PM's sightless eyes as he stepped over the bodies in the front bench.

"It's too late, Private," he heard Ditzy's voice behind him. "He's gone."

Lyle scowled. "Helen, you listening?"

"I'm here," Helen's voice sounded tense.

"We've lost Finn and Kermit."

"Damn! I told you not to go in."

"Thanks. The PM's gone too. You had better notify someone." Not really necessary, they would have seen it on his head cam. No doubt some frantic politicking had just started.

He could hear the sound of banging from behind the speaker's chair. Curious, he walked round. There was a door on either side. He tugged one open. Inside were a couple of dozen people in smart suits. He looked behind him to the carnage in the chamber.

"Good afternoon sirs, madams," Lyle said in his most business like voice. "We'll have you out of here in a jiffy. I've got survivors," he relayed.

"They've sent a team in to secure St. Stephen's entrance and carry Lieutenant Richards out," reported Helen. "If you can get them back to the central lobby, someone will conduct them from there. I'd advise you to return with them."

"If you care to step this way," said Lyle stiffly. "Finn, Lacey check the route back to the central lobby. Ditzy guard the rear."

"Oh God!" said one of the men, confronted by the sight in the debating chamber.

"The immediate threat is eliminated, sir. But if you could all hurry."

Lyle counted the heads as they shuffled passed him. Thirteen men and six women, all in varying degrees of shock, as far as he could tell, which at least made them moderately docile.

They conducted the shaken group back out of the gruesome chamber. Once away from the tangle of bodies they picked up their pace a little and seemed to gather their wits.

"Who gave the order for the army to enter the Palace of Westminster?" demanded a small pudgy man.

"Shut up, Henry. Let them do their job. We can argue about the constitution later." It was a dark-haired woman in a vibrant red suit.

"Thank you, Ma'am," Lyle muttered quietly.

She shook her head and shuddered. "A small military team in the House will be the least of the changes we'll see, I fear."

There was a group of police in what looked like riot gear clustered in St. Stephen's hallway. Lyle watched as the MPs allowed themselves to be conducted out. He turned back to Ditzy, Stephen and Lacey.

"Right," he said. "I'm checking the Lords and then heading up to the committee rooms. No one is expected to come with me."

The two soldiers and scientist facing him exchanged glances. "We're coming, sir," said Ditzy.

Lyle nodded and led the way to the Lords.

"Raptors!" breathed Lacey as they paused in the entrance.

"That last one had to have come from somewhere," said Lyle. "Covering fire. Stay in the doorway. Mow them down."

Stephen and Lacey dropped to their knees with Lyle and Ditzy behind them. There were a dozen raptors. As soon as the small group opened fire the creatures turned towards the noise and then charged. The leaders fell, but not fast enough for Lyle. It was taking a lot of ammunition to hurt these buggers.

"Fuck!" muttered Lacey, reloading a clip.

The remaining six raptors hit them full on, two leaping right over the heads of Lacey and Stephen. Lyle and Ditzy were forced back down the corridor. He couldn't see either of the others under the swarm. They fell back towards the lobby.

"We can't let these get out," muttered Ditzy. "Those plods will be mince meat."

"Not many left," said Lyle.

He fired another burst at a creature. There was answering fire from the corridor behind the raptors and the last one went down.

Lacey stood facing them.

"Stephen?" asked Lyle. She shook her head.

"How about you?" asked Ditzy.

"A few scratches, nothing more. They ran right over me. I was lucky."

"Check the chamber?" asked Ditzy.

The Lords was grim. "They'll have trouble identifying who is who," said Lacey darkly.

Stephen lay in the doorway. Deep slashes raked across his chest. Lyle assumed one had hit an artery. Ditzy closed his eyes. Lyle looked at his remaining two soldiers, wondering whether to ask them again if they were still with him.

"We find Lester then get the fuck out of here, right?" said Lacey. "No more faffing around."

Lyle nodded. "No more faffing around. Let's get upstairs to the committee rooms."

They headed for the stairs as rapidly as they could, checking only that rooms with open doors were clear.

The stairs were in sight when Lyle heard a strange sucking sound behind him. He whirled to see Ditzy's legs dangling from the ceiling. His upper body enveloped in a shapeless mass.

Lyle and Lacey both fired upwards at once, riddling the shape with bullets, keeping clear of wherever Ditzy was. His legs continued kicking which gave Lyle some hope. The gelatinous mass appeared to absorb the bullets.

"What the fuck is it?"

"No idea!" squeaked Connor's voice. "I've never seen anything like it before. Not even remotely."

"Make a guess at weak points."

"Errr... near where it's eating, I'm afraid."

Lyle watched the shape. "Lacey! Grab Ditzy's legs. Let's see if we can pull him out."

They took a leg each and hauled on them. Lyle felt Ditzy's foot kick once but after that, nothing. Slowly the medic's body appeared to be disappearing upwards and into the thing.

"Ditzy!" shouted Lyle. "Give me a sign here!"

The legs remained motionless. Lyle looked across to Lacey. Dark, shocked eyes gazed back at him. How long for suffocation, wondered Lyle. How long should they leave before they gave up on the lieutenant. There was a jerk and the body inched upwards again into the strange maw above them.

"Stand back, Private," said Lyle, with a heavy heart.

Lacey let go and stepped back smartly. Lyle aimed his gun, and sighted up Ditzy's body. Then he opened fire and hoped to God that if the lieutenant were still alive, none of his bullets would hit him.

The shape convulsed. Lyle backed away smartly. Then the thing collapsed inwards and fell off the ceiling. Lieutenant Dave Owen's head rolled free, coming to rest at Lyle's feet.

Without a word, Lyle turned away, loaded in a new clip and headed to the stairs. He was aware of Lacey at his back.

Lyle knew which room Lester had been in. Third on the right. He didn't even pause to check the others.

"Predator," called Lacey and there was the sound of gunfire.

Lyle whirled.

The creature was already upon Lacey as he emptied his clip into it. It paused giving that eerie impression of looking at him, even though he knew it had no eyes. Lyle reloaded and fired again. Put enough bullets in the things and even they went down eventually. It moved, too fast to see, but Lyle was prepared. He dropped to the floor and fired upwards catching a brief blur of movement as the thing sailed over his head. There was a thud. Lyle rolled to his feet. The body of the predator lay slumped against one wall. Private Tanya Lacey lay still, where she had fallen. Lyle set off at a run for the committee room.

The door handle turned but he couldn't gain entrance.

"Lester!" he shouted and shoulder-charged the door, he felt it move slightly.

"Lyle?" came a familiar voice from the other side. "Give me a moment, we'll move the table." Lyle sighted both ways down the corridor but couldn't see anything.

"It's clear," Lyle backed into the room. Lester and another man stood there. There were three dead bodies on the floor. Lyle shut the door and placed his back against it. "What was it?"

"Some kind of small raptor," said Lester. "In the supply cupboard." He nodded to a battered metal cupboard against one wall.

"Right," said Lyle, "let's leave it there."

Any way he evaluated their alternatives they did best to barricade themselves back in the committee room and wait the thing out. He'd lost five men fighting his way in here, he was likely to lose two civilians on the way out.

"Desk back where it was," he said.

He stepped away from the door and heard a horrible splintering sound behind him. He was unsurprised to see a second predator when he turned. He was already firing. As the claws ripped into his chest he saw the sparkle of an anomaly open behind the creature and a vaguely familiar figure stepped through, also firing a gun. Then everything became a haze of blood and pain.

* * *

Helen counted the body bags as they came out. The morbid fascination irritated her but she couldn't help it. She gave up at three hundred. The building had been packed with people. There were survivors too. Small groups who had had the presence of mind to lock themselves into offices and remain quiet and inconspicuous, but they were outnumbered by the dead.

She knew when Lyle's body came. Lester was walking behind it. His suit was covered in dried blood. Helen guessed he had held Lyle to the last. Behind him walked some MP Helen vaguely recalled from the committee she had been watching when this all started.

At the end of the small procession walked an armed man. It was another William Slater, only this one had greying hair and the look of middle age about him.

* * *

Their third William Slater was escorted from the room by his guards.

"What do you think?" asked Lucia tersely. There was a lot going on, her demeanour said. She didn't have time for this.

Helen shrugged and glanced across at Lester. His face was an impassive mask but, even in so short a space of time, he appeared to have lost weight. "His story sounds plausible enough," she ventured. "You ordered him through an anomaly because you knew he was destined to turn up in the Houses of Parliament at this time. I can see why you might have ordered him to go, just to maintain the established course of history."

"If he is telling the truth," said Lester. "All we have to do is keep him under lock and key with the other two for a couple of months and then send him back. No harm done."

"He says he worked with the team," said Lucia, "and he would certainly appear to have the relevant experience. Do you trust him?"

Helen shook her head. "No," she said emphatically. The man was all wrong. Nothing added up.

Lucia eyed her levelly. "I'm appointing him to Lyle's former position," she said firmly. "There's no one else suitable and I don't want to interfere with any established time lines."

"Clearly she doesn't trust you at all," muttered Lester, after Lucia had left the room. "Did you know she'd ignore your advice?"

Helen opted for a smirk. She was surprised too but she'd rather Lester thought she was planning something. She heard him sigh and he started loading papers into his briefcase. She felt a sudden and inexplicable sympathy for the man.

* * *

"In the light of the simultaneous attacks upon the Palace of Westminster and the Anomaly Research Centre we feel there is no other conclusion to draw than that the anomalies are in the control of forces hostile to the United Kingdom and her people. In such desperate times, desperate measures are required. We, the surviving members of parliament, have resolved to form a government of national unity under the aegis of Lucia Wright, the former Home Secretary. Elections will be held at the earliest opportunity to refill representation but, for the forseeable future, the parties have resolved to work together until the threat is removed. In the light of this the following extraordinary powers have been granted..."

Helen switched off the television in disgust. The ARC wasn't quite as much of a mess as Westminster but a lot of lives had been lost. The special forces teams had been spread thinly, caught rushing towards Westminster just as the first anomaly had opened within the ARC. The scientific teams, left behind, had been decimated. She took small comfort from the fact that Abby and Connor had been with her but the Physics research had probably been set back by months, if not years. In fact Helen rather doubted the ARC, as an organisation, would continue to exist. With the anomaly threat now public enemy number one, she expected the whole project would be parcelled off into different institutions controlled by the Ministry of Defence.

* * *

It was raining when Lyle and his team went into the ground. Helen lurked awkwardly. She wasn't family and she wasn't, technically, any part of the Special Forces chain of command. Somehow, obscurely, she felt she had been responsible for the five men and one woman who had died. It made her cranky and difficult.

Kermit's wife whose name, it transpired, was Cara, struck Helen as a pale and insipid little thing. Helen pretty much despised her on sight. For some reason the families of the dead had nominated her to make a eulogy.

"My husband always believed absolutely in his duty to serve his country. How could that be better demonstrated than in saving the lives of the nineteen members of parliament who were found in the Aye chamber. With his friends and colleagues he gave his life for his country, a symbol to us all, of loyalty and bravery in support of our British values of democracy and freedom."

"That old lie," thought Helen, "dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori." The deaths had been pointless and unnecessary. Freedom and democracy lay in tatters.

"Touching eulogy," she said, as she shook the pale girl's hand.

Lester, of course, was not among the official mourners. He stood, alone, on the sidelines. The politicians present ignored him, afraid of his political isolation. Moved by something approaching sympathy, Helen found herself drawn into his orbit.

"I'm sorry about Lyle," she said.

"You hated him. Don't insult me with false sympathy."

"I didn't say I liked him. I said I was sorry," returned Helen, relieved that here, at least, she could be honest.

Lester looked at her in surprise. "I shall need a lot more than your sympathy in the days to come."

Helen met his gaze. "What's in it for me?"

"Quite frankly, I don't know. But I don't think you like Miss Wright any more than I do. Speaking of whom," Lester plastered his falsest smile across his face.

"Lester! Such a relief to us all that you survived!" Lucia was immaculate in her tailored black suit.

"Indeed, Prime Minister," said Lester. "I am very grateful to the men and women who died to ensure my safety."

"Ah yes! Captain Lyle and his team," Lucia's smile was like a knife. "At least they weren't family, eh."

She smiled once more and was gone.

"Was that a threat?" asked Helen.

"Oh yes!" said Lester.

Helen walked next to him to the graves and stood at his side as the last post rang out across the green and pleasant fields.


End file.
